Whistle flutes or fipple flutes are a family of wind instruments employing a whistle type mouthpiece, and are among the most ancient of all musical instruments. Among this family are the recorder (also known as a fipple flute or English flute), the flageolet, and the ocarina. The ocarina dates back to antiquity, and is reported to be of South American or Central American descent, though there are indications of its use in other parts of the world.
While it has been generally believed that the qualities of simplicity and limited tonal capacity were inexorably linked in ocarinas, some efforts have been made to improve their musical quality. However, these efforts have been largely unacceptable because they have failed to simultaneously overcome prior art limits on both tonal volume and tonal range.
While popular folk instruments in various circles, the acceptance of prior art ocarinas as concert-quality instruments has been hampered by certain limitations. Two common problems with prior art ocarinas are that they either lack sufficient tonal volume (i.e., loudness), sufficient tonal range (i.e., the number of notes that they can sound), or both. Ocarinas include an airway that directs a musician's airstream across a fipple window to impinge upon a fipple edge, and a series of toneholes disposed on the instrument body penetrating into at least one resonating cavity. An ocarina fipple edge that is a short distance from the point at which air exits the airway (i.e., a short fipple window) will produce a clear focused sound and will play a relatively wide range of notes. However, such an ocarina must be blown relatively softly or the sound will disappear. As a result, the sound emitted from the ocarina will be rather quiet. In addition, the size of the toneholes directly correlates to the size of the tipple window in an accurately tuned ocarina. A short fipple window and its correspondingly small toneholes contribute to a more subdued instrument because small openings do not allow soundwaves to radiate as freely from the instrument's interior into the surrounding air. Conversely, if the fipple edge is moved farther from the point at which air exits the airway (i.e., if the fipple window is made longer), the instrument's loudness will increase because of increased allowable blowing pressure and increased radiation of sound through the larger fipple window and the correspondingly larger toneholes. However, the usual result of a longer fipple window is that the tonal range will either decrease or high notes will be very airy or squeaky. Accordingly, excellent tonal range and excellent tonal volume have rarely been united in prior art ocarinas. Airway/fipple edge design is at the root of the dilemma.